I received two frozen buffalo heads with the entire hides attached last Friday. When I got them, they had a faint rotten or musty smell to them. The hides thawed enough in a couple of days to where I could cut them off for the shoulder mounts. The heads are still completely frozen except for around the mouths, eyes, and nose. One, I have particially caped due to the frozen head. Tried to get a little at a time to open it up to help thaw. When I got to where the head was cut off down the neck, the neck meat is rotten. I have checked the hide in that area, and it has a green color completely through the thickness of the skin and the hair is pulling out with a funky slimmy stuff attached. As I got to looking at the other one, I found a huge glob of stomach contents in the neck area that likely fell out when it was butchered. The skin has a pale green tint that goes about an 1/8" deep. I think the affected area on the surface can be shaved away. However, I do not know if it is worse down in since close to the neck is still frozen. The affected area appears to get worse the further down. The smell has gotten horrific from both.
I have removed meat off the areas with thawed hide and salted to save the skins until the heads thaw enough to get them caped. If the area around the necks have been spoiled by the meat and stomach contents, am I wasting my time? They are going to likely get worse the longer it takes the heads to thaw. Is there anything that can be done to salvage the capes? I have never done a buffalo, but if I would have know that they were going to be this much trouble, I would have never taken them.
Some of the history--The animals were killed about a month ago in South Dakota. The heads and skins were brought back to a locker here in Missouri where they were for 3-4 weeks. The locker told the customers that it took about 5 days for the hides to freeze. I am guessing that it was probably at the very least 6-7 days before they were frozen.
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and keep the stop rot handy ! if you start getting alot of hair fall out , forget it and go to the next one.